Silurian U-Pb zircon intrusive ages for the Red River anorthosite (northern Cape Breton Island): Implications for the Laurentia-Avalonia boundary in Atlantic Canada

Current interpretations of the geology of Cape Breton Island suggest that it exposes a complete cross-section of the Appalachians from Laurentia across lapetan vestiges to Avalonia. Crucial to this view is the presence of ca. 1 Ga plutons, including anorthosites, which have been regarded as correlatives of Grenvillian basement, a correlation that overlooks the fact that Avalonia is also underlain by a ca. 1 Ga basement. We analyzed zircons from the Red River anorthosite (Blair River Complex, northwestern Cape Breton Island) previously dated as ca. 1.1 Ga: they yielded 421 +/- 3 Ma intrusive ages with older ages between 865 = 18 Ma and 1044 = 20 Ma inferred to be either xenocrysts derived from the country rock or from the source. Implications of these data suggest that the accompanying low pressure granulite-amphibolite facies metamorphism of the Blair River Complex is either the root of a 440-410 Ma, magmatic belt produced during slab break-off or relict ca. 1 Ga basement. The Blair River Complex occurs in a NNE-SSW, sinistral positive flower structure that progresses upwards from a Neoproterozoic rifted arc through a low grade upper Ordovician-Silurian overstep sequence to amphibolite facies fault slices, capped by the low-pressure, granulite facies rocks (Blair River Complex). The correlation of Neoproterozoic, rifted arc units across most of Cape Breton Island suggests it represents the deformed northwestern margin of Avalonia intruded by a Silurian-Lower Devonian magmatic belt. As the geological record in the Blair River Complex is similar to both Grenvillian and Avalonian basements, its provenance is equivocal, however Pb isotopic data suggest the Blair River Complex has Amazonian (approximate to Avalonia) affinities. Thus, Cape Breton Island, rather than representing a complete cross-section of the Appalachian orogen, is part of pristine-deformed Avalonia with a positive flower structure exposing a cross-section of Avalonian crust. (C) 2019 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.